Xian's head throbbed with pain as he opened his eyes, his body resting on a soft surface. It was nighttime, the moon and stars glowing against a bluish black sky. When he tried to rise up to a sitting position, volts of pain shot through his body. He laid back down, deciding to wait until his mysterious savior returned. He looked around, seeing that he was in a clearing in a bamboo forest. His sheathed sword lay next to him. A small fire burned a few feet away, the popping of wood and the chirping of crickets being the only sounds. He looked at his bedding, made of soft long grass. He could only remember the Alpha tiger demon throwing him against a rock wall and a pair of beautiful blue eyes, with unusually slit-shaped pupils. They reminded him of something that he felt should've been quite important… 

He suddenly heard a sound that sent chills of fear down his spine: the raspy grinding of scales sliding against the ground. Fear quickly consumed his heart and mind. Ever since that day when he was a child, he'd been deathly afraid of snakes. The sound stopped just above his prone head, and he saw a white-scaled snout set a bowl of water next to his head. He looked up to see the owner of the snout: a man-sized cobra with pure white scales and a pair of familiar blue eyes. Surely it couldn't have been this snake that saved him? But Xian was too busy freaking out to process the thought, flailing his limbs and trying to scoot frantically away despite the pain wracking his body.

“Hey, wait!" said the cobra in a rather pretty sounding voice. “Calm down! I'm trying to-" She interrupted herself with a sigh of slight exasperation before closing her eyes and shifting her form. Xian stopped flailing as he watched the cobra transform into a beautiful human woman with blue eyes and white hair, her body clad in white robes. His heart skipped a beat upon seeing such a beauty, but his mind had to remind him that this wasn't her true form.

“You're a snake demon," said Xian as the woman walked toward him with the bowl of water in her hands. “What am I doing here? Why'd you save me? Why-"

“Hush," said the snake-turned-human gently as she knelt and put the bowl to Xian's lips. “Drink. My name is Bai Suzhen. What's yours?" The moment the water touched his tongue and ran down his throat, he instantly felt much better. The pain went away from his body and head, and he swore he felt the wound on his forehead close up. Still, this could've been some kind of ruse. Lulling him into a false sense of security.

“Why should I tell you anything?" asked Xian after pushing the bowl away. “How do I know you won't put a spell on me or anything?"

“Because I'm truly trying to help you," said Bai Suzhen with a sincere expression. “Please, will you relax? I don't mean you any harm." Xian knew he probably shouldn't trust her, but the inflection of her voice, her beauty, and the fact that she did in fact save him caused him to relent. He laid his head down and let Suzhen continue to have him drink the rest of the healing water.

“Xu Xian," he said after he had finished the water. “That's my name. Thank you."

“You're welcome." said Suzhen with a smile that once again caused Xian's heart to skip a beat.

“Why are you doing this? You're a demon. Aren't you supposed to hate humans?" Suzhen's face suddenly turned sullen as her smiling lips curved down into a frown.

“It's kind of complicated," she said. “It involves my father, who I don't want anything to do with. I ran away, but ever since then he sent his hunters to get me back," Suddenly she tensed as her eyes momentarily turned back into a snake's, which creeped out Xian quite a bit. Her eyes turned to the north. “And speaking of which…" Xian looked to the north as well, seeing a number of figures walking over a hill clear of bamboo. 

“Um, Suzhen," asked Xian. “Who are those?"

“Hush," said Suzhen with a hint of anger in her voice. “Let me deal with her."

“'Her?'" asked Suzhen as she met the figure at the front, a raven-haired woman clad in green light scouting gear stopped in front of Suzhen, an aura of deadliness and venom surrounding her. Behind her stood a squad of terracotta soldiers: green-eyed, rust-colored, and armored statues magically given life to serve in place of actual humans. The sight of them only further instilled fear into Xian's heart.

“Well," said the green-clad woman in a voice that fit her aura: cold and dripping with venom. Her green eyes narrowed with malice. “Looks like my dear sister has found a pet." 

“Sister?" asked Xian in confusion.

“Hush," said Suzhen. “Xiaoqing, I'm not going back. You can't make me, so just give up already."

“Father demands that I bring you back. He's got big plans for when the eclipse arrives tomorrow."

“What?" asked Suzhen in shock. “What plans?"

“We're finally going to return home." 

“You don't mean-" started Suzhen, her eyes widening in shock.

“Yes," said Xiaoqing with a smile. “Father will lay siege to the Temple of Tianlong and take the Dragon Pearl by force."

“Sister, you know what happened the last time he tried. Don't risk a punishment worse than what we already went through. You don't have to do this."

“I'm sorry, sister, but Father promises not to be so forgiving the next time fail him," said Xiaoqing as she slowly drew a pair of long daggers, dripping with a steaming green liquid, from her hips. “So you're coming with me."

(Visit From A Three-Headed Friend by Randy Edelman)

“Xian, run!" shouted Suzhen as Xiaoqing slashed at her, aiming to incapacitate her. She caught her sister's wrists before the blades could scratch her skin. Xian quickly obeyed, grabbing his sword and running through the bamboo as fast as he could. Xiaoqing kicked at Suzhen's body, tearing herself free from her grasp and backflipping away.

“Kill the human," said Xiaoqing to the terracotta soldiers. The sisters circled each other, searching for an opening to strike. “I'll deal with my sister." As the soldiers ran after Xian, Xiaoqing transformed into her true self: a giant bush viper, with horns above her green eyes and heavily keeled green scales that flared and shook as much as the rattle on the tip of her tail. Retractable saber-like fangs deployed as she hissed, Suzhen turning into her white cobra form in response. The two snake sisters clashed, coiling and twisting around each other. The thrashing of their great forms snapped and cracked bamboo stalks they fell upon, the broken points pricking their scaly hides. Suzhen reared up to strike a non-lethal blow, but Xiaoqing retaliated with rapid upward bites, her fangs spurting paralytic venom. Suzhen dodged her bites just as fast as she delivered them, then bit down firmly just behind her head, tossing her away over the towering stalks and deeper into the forest. With Xiaoqing out of commission for the time being, Suzhen slithered off in the direction Xian had ran.

Memories came flooding back to Xian as he ran for his life. Memories of terracotta soldiers just like these. Memories of giant flaming cranes impaling and turning innocent people to ash. Memories of lion-dog hybrids running down people and ripping out their throats. Memories of a nine-headed golden python the size of a temple. Memories he wished he could drive from his mind forever. He was brought back to reality when a loud hiss sounded behind him, terrifying him at first before he realized it was Suzhen. The white cobra shattered the terracotta soldiers pursuing him with a swipe of her tail, then laid her head down next to Xian as he stopped running.

“Hop on and hang on!" commanded Suzhen.

“Why?" asked Xian in bewilderment. As if on cue, a giant green viper burst from a thicket of bamboo, cut and bleeding. Xian quickly got on top of Suzhen's neck and hung on for dear life as she slithered as fast as her body could take her… right towards a cliff. “Suzhen!" shouted Xian before she pushed off the edge, the human screaming with terror as they fell a great distance into a huge lake. 

Xiaoqing stopped at the edge of the cliff, furious that her sister and her human companion had gotten away. Father was not going to like this, not at all. But instead of fearing the inevitable punishment he would give her, she told herself to bear it for now. Fear was for the weak. Suddenly, Suzhen's words came back into her mind as doubt washed over her. What if Father's plan didn't work and they were cursed with an even worse punishment? What would all this pain and bloodshed accomplish then? She forced the thoughts out of her mind as she slithered her way back to her father's palace to inform him of her failure.

***

Xian and Suzhen, now in human form, crawled up onto the rocky shore of the lake, soaking wet and coughing. Suzhen looked around at their surroundings, seeing that they were in a cave, within the side of the cliff they had jumped from. 

“Suzhen," said Xian as he got the rest of the water from his windpipe. “What was all that about? Why is she after you, and what's this about the plans your father has? Who even is your father?" Suzhen was afraid of this. She wanted nothing to do with her father, his actions, his very title and name. But she had already grown to like Xian a bit. And she figured she might as well answer his questions. She gave a deep sigh before looking into his eyes with a forlorn expression.

“Xian," she said gravely. “My father is Xiangliu, The Dragon Emperor."